Man Convicted In Fatal Shooting

1994 Murder Occurred Outside New Britain Bar

A man who fled to Puerto Rico after a fatal shooting outside a crime-ridden New Britain bar was convicted of murder Tuesday and faces up to 60 years in prison.

Roy Alexis Figueroa, 23, whose last known address was in Hartford, was found guilty by a Hartford Superior Court jury. Jurors agreed with the state's charge that Figueroa fired the shots that killed Angel Acevedo, 26, also of Hartford, outside the Las Vegas Cafe on Rockwell Avenue. Prosecutors called the 1994 killing gang-related.

But the jury found Figueroa not guilty of other charges stemming from wounds suffered by two bystanders. A man outside the cafe was shot in the knee and a woman inside was hit in the shoulder by a bullet that pierced a wall.

Figueroa, who was being held Tuesday in lieu of $2 million, is to be sentenced on Sept. 25.

About a dozen people were outside the tiny club at 2 a.m. on Oct. 15, 1994, when Figueroa and Acevedo began arguing. Police said Figueroa pulled out a gun and began firing at Acevedo, fatally wounding him. Figueroa then fled. He was tracked to Puerto Rico and captured there in February 1996.

The killing and numerous complaints of fights and drug-dealing prompted the state to yank the Las Vegas Cafe's permit and close it on June 28, 1995. Records show officers responded to 63 complaints there between June 1991 and June 1995. Twenty-nine were complaints about drug use and dealing.

A bid by Angel Rivera, a retired engineer from the Bronx, N.Y., to re-open the cafe failed last year when the state Liquor Control Commission refused to issue a liquor permit. The building remains vacant.